ICBI, The International Conference on Biolron, is a joint meeting of three groups and will serve as the twelfth meeting of the International Conference on Proteins of Iron Metabolism (IP-12), the seventh meeting of the International Symposium on Iron Nutrition and Interactions in Plants, and the fourth meeting of International Symposium on Iron Transport, Storage and Metabolism. The breadth and importance of the subject allowed ICBl to be selected as the first Kenan Conference and to be supported in part by the Kenan Institute of Engineering, Science, and Technology. ICBI will be the first time that the three groups of scientists will communicate to each other the common and distinctive features of the biology of iron in humans, animals, plants and microbes. The scientists who are expected to attend are molecular biologists and geneticists, biochemists. biophysicists, and chemists, as well as scientists and physicians who study iron in medicine, nutrition and agriculture. Attendees are expected from developed nations as well as from developing countries where iron deficiency and toxicity are major features of agriculture and medicine. Topics to be covered include the structure, function and gene regulation of iron storage/accumulation, iron uptake and transport as well iron nutrition and toxicity in plants, microbes and man. The goal is to emphasize the unifying themes of iron in plants, animals, humans, microbes and in soil and water to enhance research in biotechnology, molecular biology, biochemistry and biophysics, chemistry, physiology, medicine, and nutrition.